Strong winds accompanied by rain have blown roofs off houses and disrupted electrical power lines across northern France, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture reported on Monday.
Around 150 residents of the town of Bihucourt to the north-east of Amiens were told to leave their homes. One person was slightly injured.
Town Mayor Benoît-Vincent Caille told the broadcaster BFMTV that around two thirds of the houses in the town had been damaged in the storm, which had been violent but also brief.
The prefecture referred to "strong gusts of the nature of a tornado." Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin also tweeted that the region had been hit by a tornado.
Some 2,900 households in various locations between Le Havre and Paris had been left without electricity, the Eure prefecture reported.
